bike culture blogged

Yesterday Byron and I stopped by Dahon’s HQ office in Taipei. As the world’s foremost manufacturer of folding bikes, Dahon keeps a tidy space with a few rows of desks, a meeting room, and a prominent showroom of innovative bikes. After being greeted by some of their staff, we all grabbed some bikes and hit the river bike path.

I ended up riding a Dahon Hammerhead, a small-wheeled bike with a diamond frame (though it used a variation of the Ritchey Breakaway frame couplings). Byron grabbed a folding prototype with a single speed/coasterbrake set-up. And while it was no surprise that everyone in our group was riding a Dahon, I was impressed with the vast numbers of Dahons on the bike path.

Probably 60 percent of the people were on folding bikes and at least half of those were Dahons. And even the bikes without Dahon decals frequently owe a little or a lot to Dahon, since Dahon licenses their technology to numerous bike companies. In their offices, I snapped a shot of a Bianchi folder that Dahon designed for the venerable Milanese company to sell in the Japan.